*The Brother's Hunt***
*Some predators don't chase bodies. They hunt what you leave behind.*
The city changed its rhythm at dusk.
Windows shuttered themselves. Street instruments went mute. The air tightened—like Ardenia was holding its breath.
Aru felt it immediately.
Soren's hunt was not loud.
It was **precise**.
"He's mapping you," Eidolon said quietly as they moved across the rooftops. "Not your body. Your bond."
Aru's jaw clenched.
Inside his chest, the second rhythm faltered—then steadied.
*He always did that,* Kairo's echo murmured.
*Act calm when he was already furious.*
Aru swallowed hard.
"Can you hide?" he whispered internally.
The echo hesitated.
*I don't know how,* Kairo admitted. *I was never taught how to disappear.*
That almost broke Aru.
---
## **THE FEATHER NET**
Soren stood at the center of a dead plaza, arms raised.
Black feathers spiraled outward, embedding themselves into walls, streets, statues—each one humming with a thin, predatory frequency.
A **net**.
Not to trap Aru.
To **pin the echo in place**.
"Come on, little rhythm," Soren whispered.
"Let's see where you're hiding."
The feathers resonated.
Aru screamed.
He dropped to one knee as his chest burned like it was being torn open from the inside.
Eidolon cursed.
"He's anchoring the echo externally!"
Maera drew her violin.
"I can disrupt—"
"No!" Aru shouted. "If you interfere, he'll tighten it!"
The second rhythm thrashed.
*He's pulling me apart,* Kairo said—strained but still stubborn.
*Wow. He always had to overdo things.*
Aru's vision blurred red.
---
## **THE CHOICE**
Eidolon grabbed Aru's shoulders.
"You have two options," he said urgently.
"You let the echo go—sever it now—or you merge."
Aru looked up, eyes wild.
"Merge… how?"
Eidolon hesitated.
"Convergence. Partial. You'll let Kairo's echo synchronize directly with your Soulbeat."
Maera sucked in a breath.
"That could kill him."
Eidolon didn't deny it.
Aru closed his eyes.
He remembered Greyline City.
Tin cans.
Rooftops.
A laugh that never judged him.
"I'm not cutting him loose," Aru said quietly.
The Second Beat surged.
"So we merge."
---
## **SOULBEAT CONVERGENCE (UNSTABLE)**
Aru inhaled.
And **opened**.
The boundary inside him dissolved.
Kairo's rhythm rushed forward—not overpowering, not submissive—
**Equal.**
The world snapped into clarity.
Every sound gained depth.
Every movement left afterimages of resonance.
Aru stood.
Soren froze.
"What—?"
Aru's voice came out layered.
Not two voices.
One voice with history.
"You don't get to touch him."
Aru stepped forward.
The feather net **shattered**—not violently, but cleanly, as if reality rejected its logic.
Soren staggered back.
"That rhythm…" he whispered.
Recognition.
Fear.
---
## **BROTHERS**
Soren snarled and launched forward, feathers forming blades.
Aru moved.
Not faster.
**Truer.**
Each step dismantled Soren's attack before it completed.
Not countering.
**Anticipating.**
"You always struck from the right first," Aru said calmly.
"Kairo told me."
Soren screamed and unleashed everything.
Black storm.
Murderous resonance.
Aru raised his hand.
Not Break.
Not Harmonize.
Something new.
The convergence pulsed.
Soren was slammed into the plaza, stone fracturing beneath him.
Pinned.
Alive.
Breathing.
---
## **THE ECHO SPEAKS**
Aru stepped closer.
Soren looked up—broken, shaking.
Then—
A familiar rhythm tapped through Aru's body.
*Hey,* Kairo's echo said—gentle now.
*You look like crap, bro.*
Soren's eyes widened.
"No…"
*You didn't erase me,* Kairo continued.
*You just made me louder.*
Soren screamed—not in rage—
—but terror.
---
## **AFTERMATH**
The convergence faded.
Aru collapsed to one knee, gasping.
Eidolon caught him.
"You did it," Eidolon said, stunned.
"You survived convergence."
Maera stared at Soren—defeated, exposed, alive.
"What now?" she asked.
Aru looked at his hands.
The two rhythms separated again—still close, but no longer fused.
"We don't kill him," Aru said.
Soren laughed weakly.
"You think mercy saves you?"
Aru met his eyes.
"No," he said.
"It saves me."
---
## **A NEW THREAT**
Far away, deep beneath Ardenia—
something ancient **stirred**.
A system older than the Crown.
Awakened by convergence.
A voice echoed through forgotten chambers:
**"The convergence has occurred."**
**"Prepare the Reset."**
Aru shivered.
Not from fear.
From instinct.
Something worse than Soren had noticed him.